Sunday, January 15, 2012

Barbara's South Quilt-South Africa

I had so many ideas about south that I couldn't focus until recently! I have a quilt friend from South Africa and thought using my warm colored african fabrics would be fun since they haven't come out to play for a long time! I started with a dark background and put lots of different african fabrics in many configurations and was really frustrated.

Yesterday, yes I said yesterday, I went thrift store shopping with my daughter and my sisters. I found a man's cotton shirt with this fabulous stripe and it was extra large and had all the hot colors I was looking for!

Last night I was so disappointed in my design that I just said I would use the shirt for the backing. When I cut it out, it told me to use it for the background. Yes, fabric talks to me, I'm sure you've heard it too! I took two pieces of the african fabric and voila! I added hand stitching and some machine quilting and found a fun dot fabric for the binding. I want to thank my daughter for staying up with me last night listening to my ranting and giving me suggestions and encouragement!

9 comments:

Barbara, what an amazing find at that thrift store and what a super quilt it has made! This may have been a last-minute quilt, but, wow, no one would ever know that from looking at it! I love the use of the African fabrics--I'd been wondering who might choose to tie this theme to South Africa! Fabric speaking to you? Oh, yes, it often speaks to me as well--loud and clear! A wonderful quilt!

Barbara, your quilt is wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed your commentary. It's fascinating to hear about the journey some of our creativity takes before it manifests into something that often surprises even ourselves. I'm a huge recycling proponent so your bargain shirt really struck a cord with me. Way to go!

Great quilt & story...even though it did not come together until last night, it IS a wonderful feeling when that flow happens, and it certainly shows in this piece. My fabric talks to me a lot: sometimes we play very nicely together, other times, not so much!

Hi Barbara - Beautiful quilt and fascinating story. And yes.... my fabrics speak to me all the time. Most of the time they're telling me to put them all back where they belong :-) I love shopping the resale shops - you just never know what treasures you're going to find ! Keep up the great work ! Kathy

Hi Barbara. This frustrating, quick job turned out to be a lovely quilt. I really like the recycled shirt background fabric. It is perfectly at home with the African pieces. And I love the fact that you chose a South African theme. Wonderful!

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The Material Mavens

We are a group of art quilters who come from various parts of the United States, from the East coast and then south to Arkansas and Texas. We were inspired by the original Twelve by Twelve international art quilting group.

Beginning in September, 2011, we started posting our 12"x 12" art quilts, which were based on themes chosen in turn by our members. For Round One, we posted quilts every two months, always on the 15th of the designated months.

Round Two of The Material Mavens began in October, 2014. Some changes were made: quilts were posted every three months, and the quilts could be be either 12"x 12" or rectangular ones measuring 11" x 14", either horizontal or vertical in orientation.

Round Three of The Material Mavens will begin in July, 2018. Again, changes have been made. Now those members who wish to stay affiliated with the group are free to post quilts every time or every now and then. Two, our blog administrator collected suggested themes from the members who wanted to remain affiliated. These themes were then pulled at random from a "hat," and they were then assigned in order for the posting dates. Since we had 13 members who wanted to remain, we will be posting quilts every 3 months until 2021! This date is significant and appropriate, because 2021 will be the 10th year that our group has been in existence.